OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton men's basketball has earned the No. 7
seed in the Midwest Region and will open NCAA Tournament play with a
game against No. 10-seeded Cincinnati on Friday in Philadelphia, Pa.

Creighton's game will air nationally on CBS, with Kevin Harlan, Len Elmore and Reggie Miller on the call. The game will tip at approximately 1:45 pm Central time, or 30 minutes after the 11:15 am game between Duke and Albany concludes.

The winner of the Creighton-Cincinnati game will play on Sunday against the winner of the game between Duke and Albany.

The Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champion,
Creighton (27-7) will be making its second straight NCAA Tournament
appearance and second overall. Last season the Bluejays were sent to
Greensboro, N.C., where they defeated Alabama before falling to North
Carolina.

Creighton is led by All-American forward Doug McDermott, who averages
23.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. McDermott shoots 56.1 percent
from the field, 49.7 percent from three-point range and 86.0 percent at
the line and has been named Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year and MVC
Tournament Most Outstanding Player accolades each of the past two
seasons. Seniors Gregory Echenique (9.6 ppg., 6.6 rpg., 1.7 bpg.) and
Grant Gibbs (8.6 ppg., 5.9 apg., 4.1 apg.) were both named
honorable-mention All-Valley, as well.

The Bluejays are coached by Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa, '88), who is
79-29 in his third season at Creighton and 359-224 in 19 years as a head
coach overall.

Creighton Bluejays Pre-NCAA Tournament Notes

-Creighton will be making its 18th all-time NCAA
Tournament appearance, and second consecutive.

-This will be Creighton’s ninth trip to “The Big Dance” in
the past 15 years. No other MVC team owns more than nine postseason bids in
that span.

-Creighton is 10-18
all-time in NCAA Tournament action. Creighton’s last win in the NCAA’s came on
March 16, 2012, when the Bluejays topped Alabama, 58-57.

- Creighton is one of eight schools to have appeared in 15
straight postseasons, a streak it will extend to 16 this spring. Joining the
Jays on the list of teams with streaks of 15 or more straight postseason bids (entering this season)
are Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State
and Syracuse.

-Creighton will enter the NCAA Tournament with a
27-7
record. Only two teams in school history have earned more wins, as the
2002-03 and 2011-12 squads both finished with 29 victories.

-Head coach Greg McDermott will be making his fifth NCAA Tournament appearance as a Division I head coach. He is 1-4 in his first four appearances.

-Creighton owns 12 MVC Tournament titles all-time,
including eight of the last 15. No other MVC school has won more than
five in its
history.

-Greg McDermott’s 79 wins at Creighton are the most by any coach in his first three seasons at an
MVC school since Cincinnati’s Ed Jucker. Jucker won 82 games from 1960-63 while
starting his Bearcats career with consecutive national titles.

-Since the NCAA began seeding the entire tournament in 1979,
Creighton’s best seed has been a No. 6 seed in 2003. Creighton was also eighth twice (1981, 2012), 10th five times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007), 11th
once (1991), 12th once (2002) and 14th once (1989). This is Creighton's first time as the No. 7 seed.

-The MVC has sent eight (of 36) teams to the Sweet 16 since
1994. Most recently, Northern Iowa defeated UNLV and top-seeded Kansas in 2010
to reach the Regional semifinal.

-Creighton boasts one of the nation’s most experienced teams
when it comes to postseason play. The Jays nine postseason wins since 2008 rank tied for 16th-most nationally.

-Creighton was ranked 23rd in last Monday's
Associated Press poll and 24th in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.

-Creighton leads the the country in field goal percentage and three-point percentage.

-Creighton is one of two schools with the same starting five
in every game this season, joining Stephen F. Austin.

-Creighton’s Doug
McDermott was named Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year and also MVC
Tournament Most Outstanding Player for the second straight year. He’s just the fifth player in league
history to sweep both accolades in the same season.McDermott was joined on the MVC’s
All-Tournament Team by Bluejay teammate Gregory Echenique.

-Doug McDermott
ranks second nationally in scoring average (23.1 ppg.). His 786 points this
season are second-most in school history, trailing only the 801 he scored last season.

-Earlier this season Doug McDermott became the first junior in MVC
history to surpass 2,000 career points. The only other players in league
history to reach 2,000 career points in three seasons were Oscar Robertson and Larry Bird, who both did it as sophomores-to-seniors.

-Gregory Echenique
will enter the NCAA Tournament with 984 points at Creighton (1,342
career if you include Rutgers) and 978 career rebounds (656 at
Creighton).

-Grant Gibbs is leading the MVC in assists for the second
straight season. His 202 dimes this year are the most by any Creighton
player since 1976-77.

-MVC Sixth Man of the Year Ethan Wragge had 15 points in 16
minutes during the MVC Tournament title game. Wragge is one of two
players nationally since 1995-96 (Patrick Beilein, Michigan) with at
least 220 career three-pointers and 10 or fewer career starts.

-Creighton
is 0-2 all-time against Cincinnati. The Bearcats won 66-46 on March 16,
1962 in the NCAA Tournament (in Manhattan, Kan.) and 60-58 on Dec. 28,
1989 (in Honolulu, Hawaii).

MORE NCAA TOURNEY TICKET INFO - WHAT IS PRIMESPORT AND TICKET EXCHANGE?
For sites that are sold-out, fans can still purchase official NCAA
ticket packages from PrimeSport, the official ticket and hospitality
provider and official ticket exchange provider of the 2013 NCAA Men’s
Basketball Tournament. For more information, go to ncaa.com/hospitality or
call 800-591-9198. Fans looking to buy tickets from other fans can do
so at the Official NCAA Ticket Exchange. The Official NCAA Ticket
Exchange allows fans to buy and sell tickets online to every round of
the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship in a convenient,
safe, and guaranteed environment. Ticket holders who are unable to
attend their games or find their team eliminated prior to the final
rounds of the tournament, have a place to safely sell their tickets, and
the buyer, in turn, can be assured that the tickets are authentic and
guaranteed. For more information, go to ncaa.com/ncaaexchange or call 800-591-9198.